Tamiko Washington

Professor Tamiko Washington holds an M.F.A. in Acting from the University of California, Irvine.  Her seventeen-year history as an accomplished actor, voice, and movement teacher lead her to originate American Noh Theatre based on the traditional movements of Japanese Noh Theatre and Suzuki Master Tadashi Suzuki.  Her proven effective vocal methodology can be accredited to her extensive study with Linklater and Fitzmaurice specialists such as Dudley Knight, Catherine Fitzmaurice, Isabel Kirk, Dennis Krausnick, Tina Packer, Christine Adaire, Keely Eastley, Margaret Jansen, Lisa Wolpe, Adrienne Johns, and Louis Colaianni.  She continues to perform her (twelve-year) highly acclaimed one-woman show (Los Angeles Times, Orange County Register, OC Weekly, Logan Daily News, Kansas City News) Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl by Harriet Ann Jacobs (adapted for the stage by Deanna Sidoli and Kent Kirkpatrick) with help from the Irvine Foundation and Pacific Bell Telesis Foundation.  Her performance of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet with Shakespeare Orange County in 2007 won critical acclaim in the Los Angeles Times.  She also has appeared in notable Actors’ Equity Association performances at South Coast Repertory, the Old Globe Theatre, the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company, Shakespeare Orange County, Stages Theatre, the Vanguard Theatre, and Pacific Theatre Ensemble, among others.  Her television credits include co-starring and guest artist roles in the television shows Pensacola, Silk Stalkings, High Tide, Extreme Blue, and Vanishing Son, and two Lifetime Movie Network films, Two Small Voices and Kidnapped.  She also can be seen in her supporting role as Anna Mae in the independent film A Few Breaths of Freedom. 

Professor Washington is a private vocal consultant in Los Angeles, California.  She is a professional respondent for the Kennedy Center/American College Theatre Festival, Region VII, Circuits I and III.  In 2009, as a member of the Los Angeles Women’s Shakespeare Company she was honored, with the company, in receiving the Margaret Hartford Award for sustained excellence in theatre.  In 2005, she was awarded the Kennedy Center American/College Theatre Excellence in Education for her work at Chapman University.  In 2004, she was the recipient of the Achievement of Excellence in Teaching from Chapman University, and in 2001, the recipient  of the Achievement Award for Excellence in Teaching, Creative Work, and Service especially for innovative teaching techniques and promoting successful award-winning performances at Chapman University.   She holds memberships in the Actors‘ Equity Association, the Screen Actors Guild, and VASTA (Voice and Speech Trainers Association, Inc.).

Professor Washington’s philosophy of teaching includes three core principles for students in their quest for knowledge: 1) students must strive for excellence 2) students must remain teachable, and 3) students must “perform for something greater than themselves.”  These core principles govern her consistent approach to seeking, discovering, and implementing new and innovative techniques to ensure quality training in her teaching methodologies.

Directing Credits include: 
A new play titled Kvetcher in the Wry, Forum Theatre-Festival Arts (fall 2008), a new play titled Ode to Provence by Andrea Sloan Pink, Stages Theatre (spring 2009), Conversations Among the Ruins (KC/ACTF), Antigone, the Nixon Theatre (UCI), and UCI Undergraduate Scene Workshop (UCI)

Directing Credits at Chapman University include: 
Trojan Women, The School for Scandal (Oxford University Press approved adaptation for stage/publication by Tamiko Washington), A Night of Noh Theatre (Kantan, Hagoromo), He Who Gets Slapped, Ragged Dick (Neal Bell), Marisol, BFA Actor Showcase, Elizabeth Almost by Chance a Woman, Waiting for Godot (XXXV KC/ACTF finalist production), A Streetcar Named Desire, Atsumori & Ikuta (XXXII KC/ACTF finalist production)

From Chapman University productions directed by Tamiko Washington:

A NIGHT OF NOH THEATRE, 2007

SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL, 2008

TROJAN WOMEN, 2009